Wednesday, May 26, 2010

I subbed a science class yesterday that didn't have lesson plans, I designed a lesson using Blue Planet episode on "The Deep" ocean to teach students about how environmental conditions of the deep ocean and animal adaptations of the organisms living there interact. Today when I debriefed the teacher on what I did they saw the "Adaptations" notes on the white board and said, "Oh no, you didn't talk about evolution in my class did you? I don't want no law suit, I don't even touch on evolution or adaptation."

WHAT THE FUDGE! Are you kidding me? Science teachers not teaching Evolution or natural selection or adaptations? That's like teaching algebra but not teaching kids how to count to 10, its fundamental to biological understanding. Not only that our School District Curriculum and the Washington State Standards require it.

So I wrote this email, but never sent it, because even though I am a staunch Atheist and a firm believer that this type of bullshit needs to stop immediately, I am in the process of applying for jobs and don't want a mess on my hands. So here is the un-sent email.

Dear Teacher Who Won't Teach Evolution in Science,

You said something this morning that kind of perplexed me about not teaching evolution or adaptation. So I checked to see what our school district and state say about teaching evolution, natural selection, and adaptation.

Here's what I found. Not only is it ok, it is part of our district curriculum and the state science standards. So although the fear of a lawsuit from a parent is there, you have your school districts go ahead as well as the state requirement to cover the material. Legally you would be safe if you taught it, and you should.

Teaching evolution in school is really important regardless of people's religious affiliations, school is a secular institution and science and inquiry and biology and evolution are secular institutions continually moving toward teaching proven, evidence based, curriculum and theories.

Also, the evolutionary theory of adaptation by natural selection can and does explain how life has come into being the way it is on this planet and to deprive students of this understanding of the fundamental roots of life's functions and manifestations is irresponsible and unfair to them as well as a major hinderance to their future contributions to the human condition on this planet.

Please consider these standards when planning your curriculum next year.

Tacoma 6th Grade Science CurriculumFall 6th gradeDiversity of Life

Students observe and maintain protists, plants and animals in the classroom and study their characteristic features. The study progresses from macroscopic to microscopic observation to discover the fundamental unit of life, the cell. Students then investigate organism subsystems and behaviors, ****and consider their diversity of adaptive structures and strategies.****

Fall 7th GradePopulations and Ecosystem

Students raise populations of organisms to discover population dynamics in a range of conditions. Reproduction, heredity and **** natural selection are explored as ways to understand both the similarity and the variation within and between organisms.****

State Standards

6-8 LS3A++++The scientific theory of evolution underlies the study of biology and explains both the diversity of life on Earth and similarities of all organisms at the chemical, cellular, and molecular level. Evolution is supported by multiple forms of scientific evidence. Explain and provide evidence of how biological evolution accounts for the diversity of species on Earth today.++++

6-8 LS3E++++Adaptations are physical or behavioral changes that are inherited and enhance the ability of an organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment. Give an example of a plant or animal adaptation that would confer a survival and reproductive advantage during a given environmental change.++++

6-8 LS3FExtinction occurs when the environment changes and the ++++adaptive characteristics of a species, including its behaviors, are insufficient to allow its survival.++++ Given an ecosystem, predict which organisms are most likely to disappear from that environment when the environment changes in specific ways.

6-8 LS3G++++Evidence for evolution includes similarities among anatomical and cell structures, and patterns of development make it possible to infer degree of relatedness among organisms. Infer the degree of relatedness of two species, given diagrams of anatomical features of the two species (e.g., chicken wing, whale flipper, human hand, bee leg).++++

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Some odd things happened Sunday - Monday and I want to write about them. This discussion will include some viewpoints that will likely offend people but I don't really feel the need to hold back punches so much today so read at your own risk, risk of molting your exoskeleton that is.

The beginning of this conversation must begin with some links that we've been watching at the house "back to back" sometimes. A friend shared them with us and it kind of tied together some other clips we'd been watching.

There are things that I have to say about what it made me feel about. Basically I like the idea that science actually can explain why we should be good to each other and work together logically to build a flourishing human cooperation on earth. It makes no sense logically for us to fight and disagree on who's version of the sky god is more accurate. It makes no sense to strap bombs to our chests and blow up a market. It makes no sense to have nuclear weapons and handguns. Yet every year, people all over the world die or are subject to human suffering as a result of religious beliefs and their ramifications.

Additionally, In a world that has unmanned guided missiles and expanding nuclear capabilities it is horrifyingly frightening to me that the leaders of countries still live in a reality of faith where their conscience is guided by a fictional sky god and corresponding story/set of morals. In a world where technology that could take down so many is controlled by fallible humans and those humans often times operate under religious/faith notions it utterly frightens me that the world population is still so staunchly opposed to convergent scientific thinking and collaboration based on reason and examination.

Point being, a logical scientific view of human success and fitness would say that machete-ing someone to death in Africa, or the Nuclear Armament of a Christian led super power, or a father murdering of recently raped women in the Middle East, or AIDS in Africa, or Rainforest destruction, or Climate Change, or any other seriously morally important issues would be more biologically important issues to deal with as a species than half of the religious nonsense that occupies so much time.

Moral Talent and Moral Ignorance is a cool idea also. I like the idea that if a seriously stupid person tried to have some input into a very very difficult idea like String Theory Physics or Global Economy the experts and most would agree that Billy Joe Bob hasn't really got anything helpful or valid to add to the conversation. We can all agree that there is skill/talent/authority of certain knowledge and those who don't know things are ignorant on the topic. BUUUUUUUUUT when it comes to morals/beliefs/faith and everything that realm "Everyone's beleifs must be valued." NO THEY SHOULD NOT. There is moral talent. There is Moral Ignorance. And I don't really feel the need to allow ignorant morals about "Gay Rights" and "Abortion" and "Creationism in School" into the conversation. Some of these things are morally ignorant but because we are so fearful of not being Politically Correct everyone has an equal part of the pie. Some things just aren't ok.

So yesterday Kyle and I (thanks be to Allah that I have an Atheist Roomate) drove his friend to Idaho and back. I needed to get out of the house and it gave me a chance to knit some hats and enjoy some scenery. As the landscape changed and we left the soft pillowy inner liberal folds of the Puget Sound and went further and further into the heart land all of the words of these lectures started making more and more sense.

As we drove through the vast expanse of spokane with its factory stores and mcdonalds and malls and box buildings I kept thinking about how we will never change as a species. This huge expanse of Christian consumers just plodding away.

As we drove into the track housing mega complex to drop off our friend, monster truck after SUV parked in each seemingly identical driveways, I felt like I was in the heart of the problem. We had been warned by our friend that his step dad was a redneck and his mom was really religious. In the front driveway a Ford 350 diesel on 43 inch tires sat. They weren't home yet but we walked around the house, RV in the back, four wheelers, snowmobiles, and 4 guns nonchalantly placed on the pool table, many many many bible verses posted around the house, bible versus hand written on the fridge, I just kept having flashes of these lectures and the words in my brain. We had to wait to meet the family before we could return to Tacoma. The family was late because they were getting Starbucks and then going to the GunStore to get more ammo for their new Beretta 9mm gun they had purchased. They finally arrived and after a short discussion about why a single action handgun is better than a double action the step dad left the room and came back in with a loaded gun and unclipped it, checked the chamber and removed a bullet and then pointed it at his dog and fired a bullet-less clip to demonstrate double action.

I was so uncomfortable that I could have run out of the room. I mean seriously. I know I didn't grow up around guns but this was totally f**ked up. What the hell was going on. Could these people fulfill anymore of the stereotypes? The conversation slowly moved from conversation topic to conversation topic. They were foster parents of local Indian girls and were so thankful to give them a Christian Upbringing. This and That and although I refuse to hold my tongue on many topics (having lived in a native village) I had to keep my mouth and opinions in check because an Atheist in a room with a loaded gun was probably not the smartest place to make a stand against moral ignorance.

If I had any delusions about the prospect of humans finding some sort of reason based common ground on which we could elevate our conscious for flourishing and collaboration and elimination of human suffering they had been squashed by a gun waving fat man in a SUV. So Kyle and I spent almost the whole drive home discussing what had happened relating it to these lectures and trying to decide whether anything is ever going to change.

We spend billions of dollars shoring up our oil life line in the middle east every year. We veil it under the eminent attack of terrorist forces from deep in the mountains of afghanistan and Saddam Hussein. Over 104,000 Iraqi civilians have perished from our occupation (if not many more) yet it is never on the news anymore.

Our schools are understaffed. Our elderly and disabled can't get proper care. Genocide in Africa. Suicide Bombings world wide. Catastrophic events are ongoing with not nearly as much aid as needed. AIDS epidemic in Africa. Catholic Priest Rapists and Molesters. China pumping pollution into the air. Human Trafficking. Animal Poaching. Torturing. Habitat Loss and biodiversity destruction worldwide. Pedophiles. Massive pollution. Yet instead of coming together to think about these things every sunday, instead of learning about sustainability, ecosystems and resource management and medicine and education and actually doing anything billions of people spend countless hours every week meditating on the same religious texts that have put our societies directly in the line of massive suffering. All retellings of the same story from before the Egyptians, just with different prophets, different versions of Abrahamic descendants, and we all just go along with it despite all the suffering and all the injustice and all the morally and logically ignorant crap going on.

So when you say we should respect religion and people's beliefs, I think not. When you say we should teach creative design in school I think not.

When I say the pledge of Allegiance every day I leave out the "One Nation Under God." If you are out there and you want to combat the injustice of religion then you need to get active. The reason it is so biologically/culturally successful is that it is so reproducible. The genetic code of the religion is its text which actually tells its body (the believers) to replicate it self, to spread the word. The reason "reason" isn't making it into popular culture body is because we are not reproducing it fast enough to combat the Bible (and its many versions) or the Torah or the Koran.

If you want to help then you have to do something. This blog isn't enough.

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Many so called "enlightened" believers will say that they don't believe in literal religious text interpretation and that they believe in God but not in the literal translation of the bible because its not realistic. I love that you can pick and choose that no the earth isn't X years old, and no not all animal species come from Noah's Ark, but the stuff about the Virgin giving birth to the Son of an Un-seeable sky man who we only know through people's delusions is real. The picking and choosing is ridiculous because Christians/Religious people make assessments everyday on what to believe or not. They will believe that the H1N1 vaccine will protect them but not in the fact that the only reason we contracted the Virus is because it evolved. They will believe that God cured their cancer but no that the medicine they took was developed by people operating under the evolutionary laws of biology/anatomy/physiology training and education.

So I guess believing in God and his power is really about choice in believing in whatever you want to fit your situation. (Unless you grew up in a super religious family and had no choice and were brainwashed for life then you have no choice until someone demonstrates reality for you.)

I think that this is really refreshing because it means that the people who believe whatever they want and I aren't separated by all that much. They choose to believe in things that are ridiculous logically and by so doing rationalize the world around them in said context. I choose to believe in something based on data, study and collaboration of the global community of people who analyze and test said theories of other people.

SO Christians, you and are aren't so different we both believe, you in whatever degree of ridiculous you see fit at the time needed and I the always debatable and testable explanations reached by thousands/millions of people worldwide to an exacting degree of certainty.

NOW THIS:MARK COLVIN: For nearly three decades, opinion pollsters have been asking Americans whether they believe in the literal truth of the Bible's creation story.

Asked whether God created human beings pretty much in their present form sometime in the last 10,000 years, more than four in every 10 Americans say yes - most recently in a national survey last year.

And yet every year carbon dating produces more evidence that humans have been around for far longer than that and palaeontologists produce more fossil evidence showing how we evolved from apes.

Since the discovery of DNA in the 1950s, even more evidence has been added to the theory of evolution, yet creationism and its sibling, intelligent design, are in some places stronger than ever.

Kale Iverson::::::

Ah America, gotta love it. 40% of American believe God created the world ten thousandish years ago in their present form. Awesome. Way to go Intelligent Design and Creationists, you will always have a chunk of people to give you money every sunday for sitting them in a room and telling them about a fictional man that doesn't exist. Its money for nothing, the perfect business model.

Imagine a hot ad executive going in to NBC or Nabisco or Ford with this sales pitch.

AD EXEC: "We are very excited to unveil our new product line for you this year. Our business model is as follows. Build a building with lots of seating, nay build many buildings all over the nation, invite people there every sunday, hire a man to interpret a book from 2000 plus years ago that is the same story as a book from 6000 years ago about man that biologically couldn't exist and is the son of a sky man that watches us all and at the end of every sunday session tell the people to donate money to the cause of the impossible man and his sky dad.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS: Whats the catch, what service do they get? Where does the profit go?

AD EXEC: Well that's the beauty of the system. Once you scare the stupid people into believing that if they piss off the sky dad and his impossible son bad things will happen to them you can make all your overhead as you go along and keep the profit. But,in reality the money goes to a national organization of other ancient book interpreters and then sent to a bank account where it can be invested and used on the open stock trade and real estate. And we all know that's where the money is.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS: If only enough Americans were dumb enough to believe this we'd be rich.

AD EXEC: Well 40% of American already do. We just need to come up with a more intriguing, older, more impossible son of sky dad-ish version to capitalize a corner of the market.